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II^UWfTED STATES OF AMERICA. "^^ 





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MEMORIAL ADDRESSES 



ON THE 



L.IFE AND Character^ 



OF 



RUSH C L ARK, 

(A REPRESENTATIVE FROM IOWA,) 



DELIVERED IN THE 



HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES AND IN THE SENATE, 
I " FORTY-SIXTH CONGRESS, SECOND SESSION. 



PUBLISHED BY ORDER OF CONGRESS. 




WASHINGTON: ^ 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE. 
1881. 



JOINT RESOLUTION for printing the eulogies delivered in the Senate and House of Rep- 
resentatives upon Honorable Rush Clark, deceased. 

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America 
in Congress assembled. That nine thousand copies of the eulogies delivered in the 
two Houses of Congress upon the late Rush Clark be printed, six thousand 
copies for the use of the House of Representatives and three thousand copies for 
the use of the Senate, and the Secretary of the Treasury have printed the portrait 
of Mr. Clark to accompany the same ; and for the defraying the expense of pro- 
curing the said portr.:it the sum of five hundred dollars, or so much thereof as 
may be necessary, be, and is hereby, appropriated out of any money in the Treas- 
ury not otherwise appropriated. 

Approved, February 25, 1880. 



(^ 






ADDRESSES 



ON THE 



Death of Rush Clark 



PROCEEDINGS IN THE HOUSE. 



April 29, 1879. 

Mr. Price. It becomes my mournful and painful duty, Mr. Speaker, 
to announce this morning to the House of Representatives the death 
of my colleague, Hon. Rush Clark, which occurred at his rooms 
at the National Hotel in this city yesterday afternoon, after a brief 
illness of only a few hours. 

At some future time I may ask the indulgence of the House to 
submit some extended remarks in reference to the hfe and character 
of my colleague. I think it proper to say at this time that after full 
consultation with the delegation from the State of Iowa and with the 
friends of the family, and in view of the time when the train will 
start, also in view of the fact that when the remains shall arrive 
at his old home his neighbors, acquaintances, and friends will hold 
funeral ceremonies, we have concluded to dispense with any funeral 
ceremonies in this Hall. It is due to the House and it is due to the 
friends that this explanation should be made. 

I now offer the resolutions which I send to the Clerk's desk. 

The Clerk read as follows: 

Resolved, That the House has heard with sincere regret the an- 
nouncement of the death of Hon. Rush Clark, late a Representa- 
tive from the State of Iowa. 

Resolved by the House of Representatives {the Senate concurring), 
That a special joint committee of seven members and three Senators 
be appointed to take order for superintending the funeral and escort 
3 



PROCEEDINGS IN THE HOUSE. 



the remains of the deceased to his late residence in Iowa ; and the 
necessary expenses attending the execution of this order shall be paid 
out of the contingent fund of the House. 

Resolved, That the Clerk communicate the foregoing resolutions to 
the Senate. 

Resolved, That as a mark of respect to the memory of the deceased 
this House now adjourn. 

The Speaker. The House has heard the resolutions read by the 
Clerk. The question is upon the adoption of the resolutions. 

The resolutions were then adopted. 

The Speaker, in obedience to the second resolution, announced 
as the committee on the part of the House the following : 

Mr. Price, of Iowa; Mr. Reagan, of Texas; Mr. Hatch, of 
Missouri; Mr. Neal, of Ohio; Mr. Henderson, of Illinois; Mr. 
Cook, of Georgia, and Mr. Bennett, of Dakota. 

And then, in accordance with the foregoing resolution, the House 
adjourned. 



April 30, 1879. 

A message from the Senate, by Mr. Burch, its Secretary, announced 
that the Senate had concurred in the resolution of the House provid- 
ing for the appointment of a joint committee to take order for super- 
intending the funeral and to escort the remains of Hon. Rush Clark, 
late a member of the House of Representatives from the State of 
Iowa, to his late residence; and that the President pro tempore had 
appointed Mr. Kirkwood, Mr. Platt, and Mr. Hereford as the 
committee on the part of the Senate. 

The Speaker. The Chair desires, in this connection, to announce 
that the funeral services of Hon. Rush Clark will take place at half 
past six o'clock this evening, at the National Hotel, and the remains 
will be removed to the cars at seven o'clock. Members of this House 



PROCEEDINGS IN THE HOUSE. 



are respectfully invited to attend and to accompany the remains to 
the depot. 

January 14, 1880. 

Mr. Price, by unanimous consent, submitted the following reso- 
lution; which was read, considered, and agreed to: 

Resolved, That the special order for Saturday, the 31st day of Jan- 
uary, 1880, at two o'clock p. m., shall be the presentation of suitable 
resolutions in reference to the death of Hon. Rush Clark, late a 
member of this House, and the expression by members of the esteem 
in which he was held by his associates on this floor. 



January 31, 1880. 

Mr. Price. Mr. Speaker, I arise for the purpose of submitting res- 
olutions of respect to the memory of Hon. Rush Clark, late one of 
my colleagues in this House, and I ask that the resolution introduced 
by me on the 14th day of this month be read by the Clerk. 

The Clerk read as follows: 

Resolved, That the special order for Saturday, the 31st day of Jan- 
uary, 1880, at two o'clock p. m., shall be the presentation of suitable 
resolutions in reference to the death of Hon. Rush Clark, late a 
member of this House, and the expression by members of the esteem 
in which he was held by his associates on this floor. 



^DDRESS OF yVlR. PrICE, OF ToWA. 

Mr. Speaker; For an hour we stop the wheels of legislation, and 
turn our backs upon questions which cause diversity of opinion and 
clash of conflicting interests, to give attention to the consideration of 
a subject and an event which no legislation can affect and no statute 
can change. 



ADDRESS OF MR. PRICE ON THE 



Death, it is well understood, is no respecter of persons. He strikes 
alike in cabin, cottage, or palace. Place, position, or power makes no 
change in his purpose. On this floor he has repeatedly asserted his 
prerogative as a privileged member. No resolution or statute de- 
vised by human ingenuity or enforced by human power controls in 
any degree his movements. When he demands the previous ques- 
tion it is always seconded, always sustained. No motion to post- 
pone, commit, or amend is in order. The grim monster never lacks 
a quorum, and can always command a majority, for "all that tread 
this earth are but a handful compared to those that slumber in its 
bosom." 

My late colleague, Hon. Rush Clark, commenced his career in 
this House at the opening of the Forty-fifth Congress with apparently 
as good a prospect of long life as most of us, and because of his 
fewer years much better than some of us. But, sir, in the meridian 
of his manhood, with hopes and aspirations reaching onward into 
the future, and upward toward the achievement of deeds which might 
make the world glad that he had lived, he was in an unexpected 
moment, and almost without notice, arrested by the summons which 
sooner or later will be served upon all of us, and compelled to ex- 
hibit his accounts and his character where forever the debits and 
credits of the former must remain as he placed them, and the latter 
know no change except in degree. 

Mr. Clark was born in Bedford County, Pennsylvania, October 
II, 1834; graduated at Jefferson College in that State in 1853, and 
removed to Iowa City the same year, where he resided until his 
death. He was a member of the General Assembly of the State of 
Iowa from i860 to 1864, and for two years of that time speaker of 
the house; he was also a member of the board of trustees of the 
Iowa State University; in all of which positions he discharged the 
duties devolving upon him in such a manner as to command the re- 
spect and confidence of all classes of people. 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF RUSH CLARK. 



My acquaintance with Mr. Clark was of a general and not of an 
intimate character until I met him as a member on this floor. I shall 
therefore leave others to speak more particularly of his character as 
a man and a citizen. I may be permitted, however, to say that as a 
man Mr. Clark was social, unassuming, and kind in his deportment. 
As a legislator, either State or national, his constituents could rely 
implicitly on his energy, industry, and honesty in attending promptly 
to all the business which belonged to his position ; and the members 
of this House who served with him in the Forty-fifth Congress, and 
in the first or special session of the Forty-sixth Congress, until his 
death, will bear witness to the fact that few members were more con- 
stantly in their seats during the session of the House than he. 

Mr. Clark was apparently in as good health as usual on the even- 
ing of one day, and on the evening of the next he had no place among 
the living. The going down of the sun on the evening of the 27th 
of April, 1879, found him busy with the cares and activities of this life. 
The setting of the sun on the evening of the next day found him a 
dweller in the spirit land. 

This sad event, Mr. Speaker, forces the conviction upon all of us 
who still occupy positions on the time side of the river of death — 

That when the angel of shadow 

Rests his feet on wave and shore 
And our eyes grow dim with watching. 

And our hearts faint at the oar, 

Happy is he wlio heareth 

The signal of his release 
In the bells of the Holy City, 

The chimes of eternal peace. 

But, sir, no eulogy that I can pronounce, no tribute that 1 can 
bring to the memory of my late colleague, can equal that which was 
accorded him by the people of his own city, his neighbors and ac- 
quaintances who had known him intimately for more than a quarter 
of a century, and who turned out en masse to his funeral. His mon- 



ument is in the hearts of those who knew him longest and best. Mr. 
Speaker, Mr. Clark is no longer of this earth. He will answer 
never again to the roll-call in this Chamber. He has been called to 
visit that "undiscovered country, from whose bourn no traveler re- 
turns." And may I not add, sir, that these sudden and solemn calls 
so frequently made upon members of this House during the last two 
years should admonish us who remain to 

So live, that when the summons comes to join 

The innumerable caravan which moves 

To that mysterious realm, where each shall take 

His chamber in the silent halls of death, 

We go not, like the quarry slave at night, 

Scourged to his dungeon, but, sustained and soothed 

By an unfaltering trust, approach the grave 

Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch 

About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams. 

I submit the following resolutions : 

The Clerk read as follows: 

Resolved, That this House has heard with deep regret of the death 
of Hon. Rush Clark, late a member of this House from the State 
of Iowa. 

Resolved, That as a testimony of respect to his memory the officers 
and members of this body will wear the usual badge of mourning 
for the space of thirty days. 

Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be transmitted by the 
Clerk to the family of the deceased. 

Resolved, That the Clerk be directed to communicate a copy of 
these proceedings to the Senate, and that as a further mark of respect 
to the memory of the deceased this House do now adjourn. 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF RUSH CLARK. 



;^DDRESS OF M.R. pOFFROTH, OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

Mr. Speaker: Rush Clark, our deceased brother, was born in the 
district that I have the honor to represent in this Congress. There- 
fore, it is fitting in me to rise to second tlie resolutions presented 
to this body in respect to him and to bring my tribute to his worth 
and my praise to his many ennobling qualities. Rush Clark was 
born in the beautiful village of Schellsburgh, Bedford County, Penn- 
sylvania, on the nth day of October, 1834. His father, John Clark, 
was of Scotch-Irish family and was born in Cumberland County, Penn- 
sylvania. His mother was born near the line between the States of 
Pennsylvania and Maryland, opposite Hancock. His parents were 
among the early settlers of the lovely valley in which Rush was born, 
and they were universally respected and beloved far and near by all 
who knew them for their hospitality and their upright Christian walk. 

Rush Clark was the sixth son of John and Mary Clark. His 
deep and fervent love for his father and mother made him linger 
long around the threshold of his childhood's home. During the 
period when he was at home basking in parental affection I first made 
his acquaintance. How well I now remember his happy home, the 
warm brotherly and sisterly love that ever greeted him ! He was 
generous and kind, intellectually bright, and full of life, energy, and 
untiring zeal. He did not doubt when he met obstacles or reverses 
in his pathway ; he moved on with renewed courage until he over- 
came every difficulty and accomplished his aim. 

His boyhood days were pleasant and happy. He imbibed and 
ingrafted into his being the loveliness of the country in which he 
lived. There the morning sun kissed into life and beauty the many 
flowers that grew up around his home; there the evening shadows of 



2 R c 



ADDRESS OF MR. COFFROTH ON THE 



the mighty Alleghany rested upon the earth he trod. He was sur- 
rounded by relatives and friends who encouraged him to deeds of 
kindness and honor. A relative who loved him and knew him well 
writes me, " If I were called upon to pass a eulogiura ever so brief, 
it would be that Rush Clark loved his mother arid lived for the good 
he might do others." What more need be said in praise of our de- 
ceased brother ? He will live in the memory of all those who knew 
him. The great good he did for others surpasses in grandeur the 
greatest intellectual and political achievements of his wonderfully suc- 
cessful life. Ecclesiastes taught that " a good name is better than 
precious ointment." Lord Bacon said, " Death has this also, that it 
opens the gate to good fame and extinguisheth envy." Thus it will 
be with the memory of our deceased brother. His good name, his 
kind disposition, his benevolence, his pleasing manners, his great 
ability, and his social qualities will be remembered long after his body 
molders to "mother dust." 

He was liberally educated. He attended the schools at Schells- 
burgh; then went to the Ligonier Academy in Westmoreland County, 
a place of learning of high reputation, under the charge of an elder 
brother; from there he entered Jefferson College and graduated with 
the highest honors. He then went West to carve for himself a name 
and fame in a new country far from his relatives and the friends of his 
youth. He located in Iowa City, then the capital of the State, read 
law, and was admitted to the bar. He gallantly and manfully strug- 
gled in his profession to attain eminence, and soon made for himself 
a reputation that secured him a good practice. In i860, at the age 
of twenty-six, he was elected a member of the General Assembly of 
Iowa, and was continued in the position until the close of the session 
of 1864, and was speaker of the house in 1863 and 1864. He also 
held a number of positions of trust and honor in the State ; and was 
elected in 1876 to the Forty-fifth Congress, and in 1878 re-elected to 
the Forty-sixth Congress. 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF RUSH CLARK. 



Mr. Speaker, we separated in the days of his boyhood, and only 
met again here at the extra session I did not then imagine that in 
a few days we would separate to meet no more until the great waters 
of the deep, the mountains, and the valleys give up their dead. The 
last time I saw him alive was the night before his death; when we 
parted he said, " We will meet in the House to-morrow." We did 
not meet. Death during the night laid its icy grasp upon him, and 
when the hour arrived when we should have met at the House, his 
spirit was taking its flight from " the shore touched by the mysteri- 
ous sea that never yet has borne on any wave the image of a home- 
ward sail." 

How sudden was his death! He was in the prime of life. Many 
years of distinction and honor were apparently before him. He was 
beloved, because he was frank, candid, and sincere, and looked with 
the eye of charity upon the failings and mistakes of men. " He be- 
lieved in the power of kindness, and spanned with divine sympathy 
the gulf that separates the fallen from the pure." We are called upon 
to mourn the loss of one who in a brief time accomplished much, but 
promising more and more if he had not been cut off so early in life. 

Ne'er gathered the reaper fruit more fair. 
Never the shadows of dark despair 

Fell on a deeper woe. 
Gone from his task half complete, 
Gone from caresses kind and sweet, 

Into Death's arms of snow. 

Mr. Speaker, I have no language to describe my feelings when I 
viewed his form encased in the casket of the dead. Handsome in 
death as he was pure in life, I remembered that Shakespeare had 
defined death to be " the blind cave of eternal night," and I trem- 
bled at the thought, but I quickly drew sweet and enduring consola- 
tion from the divine promise of the Saviour of mankind when he de- 
clared: "In my Father's house are many mansions; if it were not 



ADDRESS OF MR. SAPP ON THE 



SO I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you." 
Bulwer has feelingly expressed : 

There is no death ! The stars go down 

To rise upon some fairer shore, 
And bright in Heaven's jeweled crown 

They shine forevermore. 

His remains are interred in his adopted State. The people of Iowa 
will cherish his memory for his devotion to their interests, and the 
statutes and public records of that State will be a lasting monument 
to his intellect and legal ability. His friends in Pennsylvania will 
forever mourn his loss, and the country at large will regret the early 
and sudden demise of an able Representative in Congress. 

Gone from his country's august claim, 
Where he, from the lofty dome of fame. 

Hung like a bright polar star ; 
Swift as a sunbeam snatched away 
By a sudden cloud when April day 

Broods in the heavens afar. 



^DDRESS OF Mr. SapP, OF JoWA. 

Mr. Speaker: Death, always an unwelcome messenger, is espe- 
cially so when he claims as his victim one with whom we have been 
closely associated. This thought is impressed upon my mind on this 
occasion, set apart in commemoration of the death of my late col- 
league, Hon. Rush Clark. In sorrow for the necessity which ex- 
ists, I, too, sir, second the motion to adopt the resolutions before us. 
There are times when obituaries become an imperative duty, and a 
conviction of this is the motive that governs me to-day. Our rela- 
tions for many years were such that it makes this duty a painful one; 
but I cannot allow this occasion to pass without paying a brief trib- 
ute to his memory. I have not the gift of eulogy, and will not at- 



tempt to make one ; but I would, while these solemn rites are passing, 
lay a few garlands of regard and affection on his grave. 

Mr. Clark died at his hotel in this city on the 28th day of April 
last, suddenly and unexpectedly. No intelligence of his sickness and 
approaching dissolution had reached his constituents, neighbors, and 
friends at his home until after Death, the conqueror of all, had done 
his work. 

I parted with him in the afternoon of the day preceding his death 
to visit my home in the West. He was then buoyant and hopeful, 
saying to me as I left him that he never felt better in his life. On 
the following morning but one I was startled by the shocking intelli- 
gence that he was dead. And in the same hour, by the electric 
spark, the sad announcement that " Hon. Rush Clark, of Iowa, is 
dead" sped away to his far-ofif home, to his friends and trusting con- 
stituents. 

Mr. Clark was a native of Pennsylvania, having been born at 
Schellsburgh, Bedford County, in that State, on the nth day of 
October, 1834. 

His education was begun in the public schools, after which he re- 
ceived an academic training preparatory to entering Jefferson Col- 
lege, at which institution he graduated with honors in 1853. Shortly 
after this, filled with that spirit of enterprise which has led to the 
wonderful growth and development of the great West, he emigrated 
to Iowa, selecting as his home Iowa City. He first commenced the 
study of medicine, but in a short time, finding this profession uncon- 
genial to his tastes and wishes, he turned his attention to the study 
of law, and, when prepared, was admitted to practice in the several 
courts of that State. From that time until his death he kept an office 
and practiced this profession with success. ' 

Mr. Clark was repeatedly called upon by his fellow-citizens to fill 
places of honor and trust. He was elected by the people of Johnson 
County to represent them in the General Assembly in i860, and was 



14 ADDRESS OF MR. SAPP ON THE 

re-elected to that office in 1862, serving during this term as speaker 
of the house of representatives. He was elected to and held the 
honorable and responsible position of trustee of the Iowa State Uni- 
versity from 1862 until 1866. He was again elected a representative 
to the State Legislature, which position he resigned upon being nom- 
inated by the party to which he belonged as their candidate for Rep- 
resentative to the Forty-fifth Congress, and to which he was elected. 
He served with fidelity and ability, as all of us know who served 
with him in that Congress. So faithfully and well had he served the 
people who elected him that he was renominated without opposition 
and was again elected by a very large majority to this Congress. 

I shall not attempt to give even a general statement of the way he 
performed the arduous and responsible duties of Representative here, 
but this much may with propriety be said, that in the discharge of 
his public duties the great leading and controlling question with him 
was : What is right ? And when he had settled that question he firmly 
adhered to his convictions, never permitting considerations of policy 
or expediency to divert him from the right. He was unremitting in 
his attention to the business, interests, and wants of his constituents, 
ever devoting himself to the discharge of his whole duty to them 
and to the country. He was prompt, regular, and constant in his 
attendance upon the sessions of the House and the meetings of his 
committees. 

Mr. Clark possessed a quick, active mind, enabling him at a glance 
to comprehend a subject requiring thought and study with many 
others. As a man he was always, under all circumstances, urbane, 
kind, courteous, and genial. His generosity knew no bounds. Ever 
thoughtful of the happiness and well-being of others, he was of 
necessity a marked favorite in the community in which he lived. 
Possessing these noble qualities in a high degree, he endeared him- 
self to all with whom he was intimately associated. 

But there are none, sir, who know so well the full measure of his 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF RUSH CLARK. 1 5 

noble generosity, of his kind and sympathizing heart, as do the grief- 
stricken wife and children who were the recipients of all that is good 
and noble in a husband and father. Yet we should pause here and 
draw the veil over a sorrow so sacred. It is not for us to intrude 
therein. It has been said that a merciful Providence confers on man 
a most gracious boon when He conceals from him the " time that he 
shall cease to be." Spared the weary hours of pain, the wan specter 
of anxiety and anguish, the relentless warnings of the pale messen- 
ger, he receives unheralded the final stroke. To those who so believe 
there may be comfort in the death of our friend whose early sum- 
mons we all so much deplore. His call was so sudden, so unex- 
pected, that it is difficult to believe that the seal of death has really 
been placed upon him, that he has crossed the cold river to the spirit 
land, and that all there was of earth to him has forever passed away. 
Truly " in the midst of life we are in death." 



Addi^ss of yVlR. Manning, of yviississippi. 

Mr. Speaker : The inexorable voice of mortality is again heard 
in these halls of legislation for the sixth time in the recent past, and 
pursuant to an immemorial custom, we have ceased our daily routine 
of labors that we may pay fitting tribute to the memory of our de- 
parted associate. Rush Clark. 

I ask but a brief space in which to contribute a modest chaplet on 
the same hallowed shrine, in addition to the highly graceful tributes 
which have been presented by those who were longer and more inti- 
mately acquainted with our deceased friend than myself 

We were all greatly shocked by the suddenness with which he was 
stricken down while at his post of duty in this city, on the 28th day 
of April last, and while in the midst of a public career honorable to 
himself and his people. 



l6 ADDRESS OF MR. MANNING ON THE 

The simple story of his life is a far better eulogy than the plaudits 
of admiring friends. He was born in Schellsburgh, Pennsylvania, on 
the ist of October, 1834, and was therefore called to enter the great 
beyond in the forty-fifth year of his age. His alma mater was Jeffer- 
son College of the same State; and immediately after graduating at- 
that college in 1853 he removed to Iowa City, Iowa, where he con- 
tinued to reside, and in a short time thereafter entered upon the prac- 
tice of the law. As a lawyer he soon enjoyed that distinction to 
which he was entitled by his marked ability, energy, and integrity. 
In i860, when the war clouds were lowering upon the country, in the 
hope of serving his State at this critical juncture, he was elected to 
the Legislature and at once took front rank among the leaders of the 
party to which he belonged. 

In 1 86 1, when the tocsin of war first sounded in the land and the 
whole population was springing to arms, he accepted service upon 
the staff of Iowa's governor with the rank of lieutenant-colonel, and 
was at once active and efficient in sending forward to the war armed 
men for the maintenance of the Union of States. 

In 1862 he was re-elected to the Legislature, and was elevated to 
the position of speaker, the delicate and responsible duties of which 
place he discharged with dignity, ability, and fairness, although at 
that time he was only about twenty-eight y^ars of age. 

Soon after the restoration of peace he resumed the practice of his 
profession, forming a copartnership with Judge W. J. Haddock, which 
continued until dissolved by his untimely death. He re-entered the 
halls of his State Legislature in 1876, although to do so involved a 
sacrifice of his personal and business interests. At the ensuing Con- 
gressional election he was rewarded by his party for the eminent and 
patriotic service he had rendered his State and country by electing 
him to the Forty-fifth Congress, and again in 1878 by returning him 
to the Forty-sixth Congress. 

Those who knew him upon this floor know how faithfully and 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF RUSH CLARK. 



•7 



promptly he responded to every duty that devolved upon him, and it 
is not strange that his generous impulses, strong mental faculties, pure 
private and public character, and love of country's honor and welfare, 
secured for him a warm place in the hearts of his constituency, whose 
interests he ever guarded and protected with so much zeal and etli- 
ciency. An exalted public spirit ever animated his breast ; and every 
movement, whether originated in legislative halls or elsewhere, which 
in his judgment tended to benefit the country in large or small degree, 
and bring peace and fraternal relations to the whole people, received 
his utmost aid. 

Now that his life is finished the testimony is cheerfully borne by all 
who knew him, without regard to party affiliations, that he left to his 
family, friends, and country a name without a stain. 

The following resolutions adopted by the citizens and professional 
associates of his distant home attest the esteem and affection of those 
in whose midst his life has been spent : 

As citizens of Iowa City, desiring to express our sorrow in view of the deatli of 
our friend and neighbor, Hon. Rush Clark, we resolve : 

1. That we cherish a grateful remembrance of his many public and private vir- 
tues, his genial disposition and courteous bearing, and his ready and able advocacy 
of all that tended to promote the material, social, and educational prosperity of 
our city. 

2. That we rejoice in the merited distinction which he attained ia his profession 
and in tlie legislat ve councils of the State and nation, and we deeply mourn that 
his life should so suddenly close in the midst of so mucli promise of usefulness and 
honor. 

3. That our sympathy is hereby tendered to the family and relatives of our de- 
parted friend, knowing as we do that this bereavement robs them of one whose 
domestic virtues rendered him peculiarly drar to them. 

Truly, it can be said of him, " He was the noblest work of God — 
an honest man." 

He was too brief a time a Representative in tlie Congress of this 
Government to afford him either time or opportunity to adequately 
impress upon the country the many sterling qualities of head and 
heart which so much adorned his character, and which would ha\'e 



3 K c 



resulted in benefiting so greatly all who were so fortunate as to come 
within the reach of their influence. In all the range of his social and 
political relations his bearing was marked by such loftiness and purity 
of purpose that the profoundest respect was paitl him by his adver- 
saries, and the sincerest affection by those with whom he co-operated. 

Be it known, Mr. Speaker, to the credit of our humanity, that while 
we pause in our labors to observe the time-honored custom of laying 
our tributes upon the tomb of a departed colleague, party distinc- 
tions are unknown, as is beautifully illustrated by the intermingling 
at this hour of the voices of his political friends and adversaries. 

His mind had received the training and discipline of a quarter of 
a century of active mental labor, and the invigoration of countless 
collisions in intellectual gladiatorship, both in temples of justice and 
upon the hustings — ever wielding the cimeter of argument with 
manliness and dignity. As a statesman he was conservative in all 
his views, appealing always to the pure and elevated judgment, and 
not to the passions or prejudices of the people. On the page of 
Rush Clark's history it can be truthfully written that he " was of the 
most artless, candid, open, and benevolent disposition, disinterested 
in the extreme; of a temper mild and placable even to a fault, with- 
out one drop of gall in his whole constitution." 

But he is gone forever from the earth, and only his deeds can live 
after him, which, let us believe, will improve and elevate those who 
remain. The gladsome songs, the voice of loved ones, the beauties 
of nature are no more for him. 

Rest and sleep, sleep and rest! There are many who mourn you — 
eyes that are dimmed with tears as they remember with grateful 
hearts your many generous acts of kindness. There are those who 
feel that your place can never be filled. "The best portion of a 
good man's life are the little, nameless, unremembered acts of tender- 
ness and love," with which your life was made redolent and glorious. 

From these events of Providence we should receive not alone the 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF RUSH CLARK. 



19 



impression that in the midst of life we are in death, but also that as 
death ends life is filled up with duties. 

Our brother has fallen asleep. May he sleep on in peace until the 
last grand reveille of recorded time shall awake him again and sum- 
mon him from on high to mount the radiant heights of glory on the 
dread morning of the resurrection. Death is not the end : 



It but breedeth an infinite beginning; 
Limits are for time, and death killed time; 
Eternity's beginning is forever. 



y^DDRESS OP yVlR. NeAL, OP DhIO. 

Mr. Speaker: The Great Reaper has been in our midst. He who 
considers neither age, nor sex, nor condition of man, who inexorably 
and impartially cuts down the young, the middle-aged, and the old, 
has laid his icy hand upon one of our number in the prime of life, in 
the full enjoyment of every intellectual faculty, and in the mid-career 
of manly activity and usefulness. 

Rush Clark, of Iowa, has "swept through the gates," and he will 
come in and go out with us no more forever. His accustomed seat 
in this Hall is now filled by another. His life in this world is ended; 
his mission accomplished, and he has gone to join the innumerable 
caravan in that undiscovered country from which there is no return. 

Well and truly has it been said by one of earth's wisest .sages, 
man's life is but a hand breadth ; a solemn truth, of which, in the 
hurry of business, in the toil and turmoil of life, and in the pursuit 
of the phantoms of our hopes, aspirations, and desires we too often 
lose sight, until rudely brought to our recollection by such a death 
as that of our late associate. We determine upon our plans, we lay 
out our work, we arrange our programme for the long vista of years 
which, panorama-like, unfolds itself before us, when suddenly, may- 
hap without warning, our lives are required of us, and the bright 



ADDRESS OF MR. NEAL ON THE 



and brilliant future fades away into the black nothingness of death. 

And this is all we are certain of in this world. Why even now — 

Our hearts, 
Like mufiled drums, are beating 
Funeral marches to the grave. 

Mr. Speaker, it was not my good fortune to have known Mr. 
Clark previously to the assembling of the Forty-sixth Congress in 
this Hall in the month of October, 1877. We met here and then for 
the first time, strangers to each other as we were to most of those 
who were to be our associates during the life of that Congress. An 
acquaintance early formed soon ripened into a friendship which con- 
tinued without a jar until he yielded up this life, on the 28th day of 
April last, to the resistless demand of that master of the human race, 
Death ! 

I early discovered that he was a man of high sense of honor, of 
irreproachable integrity, of fair abilities, fine literary and professional 
acquirements, and sterling patriotism ; that he possessed a heart of 
as tender susceptibilities as a woman, without pretension and with- 
out sham. He fully appreciated the responsibilities of life, and met 
them in a right manly way. To him — 

Life was real, life was earnest, 
And the grave was not its goal. 

There was nothing sordid nor mean about him ; nothing low, base, 
nor groveling. His aspirations were ever upward and onward, ^'■ad 
astra per asj>era'\; and he appreciated this earth and the things 
thereof only so far as they aided him to achieve that which was of 
the intellect and the spirit. His inspirations were: 

Build thee more lofty mansions, O my soul, 

As the swift seasons roll, 

Leave thy low vaulted past, 

Let each new temple grander than the last, 

Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast. 

Till thou at length art free. 

Leaving thine outgrown shell by Time's unresting sea. 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF RUSH CLARK. 



Mr. Speaker, I said he was a man of sterling patriotism; and so 
he was. ' It was bounded by no narrow State Hnes. The whole 
country was his fatherland, and he alike rejoiced in the prosperity of 
the East, the West, the North, and the South. Although a citizen and 
a Representative of one of the most flourishing of the States of the 
Union, a State wliich is already a very giant among her sister States, 
and whose future is as bright and promising as the most sanguine of 
her children could ask for, a State which our associate loved right 
well, and he was proud of Iowa, of her enterprising people, of her 
past history and brilliant future, yet the fountains of his heart did 
not congeal as he passed beyond her border. He loved the whole 
country as well, for he was more an American than he was an lowan, 
and he could illy appreciate the feeling and judgments of those whose 
horizon was bounded by the contracted limits of their own petty 
State, and whose vision was so limited that they saw nothing to love 
and admire and to excite their patriotic emotions in the grand reality 
that they are citizens of the great and proud and free Republic of 
America. With him, before all else was the nation ; the State occu- 
pied a secondary place in his heart, his judgment, and affections. 

He was an earnest advocate of Republican ])rinciples and polity, 
because he believed those principles to be founded upon the firm 
basis of justice and right, and that the continued supremacy of the 
Republican, party was essential to the peace, the prosperity, and well- 
being of the American people; yet lie judged not unkindly those who 
conscientiously differed from him in opinion. I question whether a 
single member of the Forty-fifth Congress ever heard from his lips 
an unkind word or an uncharitable expression. 

He was possessed of a large heart, and his sympathies were with 
the people. Oppression and wrong, wherever or by whomsoever ex- 
ercised, he denounced with honest indignation. Incapable himself 
of wrongfully depriving any one, even the humblest and most obscure, 
of the rights bestowed by Providence or guaranteed by law, he could 



ADDRESS OF MR. THOMPSON ON THE 



illy brook to see others do so, and was unable to understand how any 
one possessing the instincts of an honest man or the principles of a 
gentleman could persuade himself to reap the fruits of a crime or 
enjoy the emoluments of office obtained by outrage upon the sacred 
rights of the people. He desired to see our Government in truth and 
in fact, as it is in name, " a government of the people, by the people, 
and for the people." 

Mr. Speaker, I desire to say but a word more. . I honored Mr. 
Clark for his many estimable qualities of heart and intellect, for 
his manly independence, for his quick apprehension of the right, and 
his firm determination at all times to do the right as power and in- 
sight were given him to discern it, regardless of the consequences to 
himself. But although in all these views and opinions my Judgment 
heartily approved and my heart fully sympathized, yet beyond them 
all I loved him because he was my friend — sincere, earnest, and 
true; and for this I drop the silent tear upon his grave, and pay this 
last tribute of respect to his memory. 



^DDi^ss OF yw.R. Thompson, of Jowa. 

Mr. Speaker: The humble and brief tribute which duty as well 
as inclination leads me at this time to bring as friendship's offering to 
lay on the grave of my honored friend and dead predecessor, though 
long delayed, will be none the less sincere and heart-born. And the 
eloquent and well-timed utterances of those who have preceded me 
leave but little more to be said. 

Many circumstances led to a more than usual intimacy and friend- 
ship between Mr. Clark and myself. We were near the same age, 
both born and reared to manhood's years in the same State, the old 
Keystone; and in the morning of young manhood both, in the latter 
part of the year 1853, left our native State and went to the young 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF RUSH CLARK. 23 

and then extreme frontier State of Iowa, scarcely known in the bright 
constellation of our grand sisterhood of States at that time. He was 
without friends and but little means, among strangers and in a strange 
land. He had nothing to rely upon except his own energy and high 
resolve to conquer difficulties and overcome obstacles by an upright 
life and honorable conduct; and like every true-hearted American 
youth, he had unfaltering faith in the future of his country. He loved 
her institutions, her laws, and, above all, felt the hope-giving fact 
and realized the grand truth that the highway to usefulness, honor, 
and fame was not monopolized by the accident of birth, nor was the 
pathway to renown by divine right the property of either class or 
person, and the gates to the temple of fame opened not at the touch 
of golden keys. Recognizing no aristocracy except the aristocracy 
of brains, by his own energy, industry, and honest labor he sought 
to achieve whatever success in life he might, knowing that under our 
Government these ways were open to the poorest and humblest boy 
in our broad land who with an honest purpose fights the battle of life 
with a good intent. 

The occasion of our first meeting, and the forming of an acquaint- 
ance which in after years ripened into a friendship unbroken during 
his life, and which will for all coming time remain to me a sacred 
memory, is worthy of special note at this time. It has lately become 
a question of some interest as to which State called, and, in fact, held 
the first Republican State convention, several claiming that honor. I 
deem it fitting to state upon this occasion thaton the 22d day of Feb- 
ruary, 1854, in the then capital of Iowa, a Republican State conven- 
tion assembled under a call of a few citizens of the State, and upon 
that day and occasion I had the honor of being present as a dele- 
gate, and then and there met for the first time Mr. Clark. He was 
not a delegate, but being a resident of the city and in active sympa- 
thy with the movement was present, and very materially aided by 
his wise, well-digested, and carefully prepared counsel in forming the 



24 ADDRESS OF MR. THOMPSON ON THE 

platform of principles adopted by the convention, which then nomi- 
nated for governor that noble man and grand statesman, James \V. 
Grimes, whose subsequent career in the councils of the nation made 
his name a familiar household word, and whose acts and doings make 
one of the brightest pages in our country's history, and who at the 
following election, then held in the month of August, 1854, was 
chosen as chief executive of the State, and, as I claim, the first Re- 
publican nominated or elected to a State office. With these scenes I 
ask that the name of my honored predecessor stand associated for all 
time to come, and as a tribute to his worth, who, although so young 
and inexperienced, dared, in the face of a defiant majority, stand true 
to his convictions and sacrifice present success that conscience should 
remain approved. 

It was my privilege to know him well and long, nor can I now 
realize that more than a quarter of a century has passed since I first 
met him, and that those years bridge the chasm separating that day 
from the time of his decease. In these years I was associated with 
him as an attorney of the same judicial district, and practicing often 
at the same bar. I watched with pride his career in the General As- 
sembly of our State, rejoiced when I saw him called to preside over 
their deliberations as speaker of the house, and all his public acts re- 
ceived the plaudit of '' Well done, good and faithful servant"; and in 
all these various positions of honor and trust which he through the 
partiality of his countrymen was called to fill he discharged the duties 
of each with that same marked ability and integrity which silenced the 
fault-finder, and in the presence of his pure, unsullied life as a pub- 
lic man, the tongue of slander was mute and vituperation died on lips 
that would detract; and after he had discharged these duties, public 
confidence so firmly established called to him to come up higher, and 
he was intrusted with the proud honor of representing his district in 
this House, and though among the youngest of those who achieve 
this distinction, he brought to the work a varied experience and ripe 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF RUSH CLARK. 



judgment, which enabled him to do credit to himself and honor to 
those he represented. 

But a strange, mysterious Providence, to mortal wisdom incompre- 
hensible, as he was just entering upon his second term in this House, 
at an unexpected moment called him to go hence, and in obedience 
to the inexorable summons he went from an active, useful life, in the 
prime of matured manhood, out into the mysterious realms unexplored 
by mortal man and from which no human voice gives back a response 
to ours. And faith and hope only give assurance that we may meet 
again. I received from him the last letter he ever penned. It was 
written the Saturday before he died, and the startling words, " Rush 
Clark, is dead," flashed along the wires and were read by many a 
moistened eye hours before I received and opened his last letter ; and 
as I read the lines the truth came with crushing weight, that the hand 
which so lately penned those lines was then palsied in death and the 
eye that watched the page as the words of confidence were formed 
was forever closed. How true the poet's words: 

The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power, 

And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave, 
Await alike the inevitable hour ; 

The paths of glory lead but to the grave. 

Mr, Clark, possessed a high order of oratory; not, it is true, that 
kind which sweeps like a tornado, not that heroic, impassioned elo- 
quence which captivates the imagination, leaving the reason and 
judgment untouched, but a clear, classical statement, compact and 
logical, forcing conviction on the hearts of all who heard it that his 
utterances were the result of honest convictions. Always gentle- 
manly and courteous, sensitive himself, he was ever tender of the 
feelings of others; and even in the fiercest contests before courts and 
j dries, where intellectual swords flashed keen and bright, whatever 
he may have felt he never forgot himself so far as to utter a word or 
sentence which required a subsequent explanation or apology, and 



4 K c 



26 



ADDRESS OF MR. THOMPSON ON THE 



yet when once convinced of the right he was heroically loyal to those 
convictions. He never betrayed a friend or compromised a principle. 
As a husband he was kind, considerate, and devoted. As a father he 
was sincerely and wholly attached to his children, and was a most 
indulgent parent, and in their midst, under his own roof-tree, sur- 
rounded by wife and children, so enshrined in his manly and loving 
heart was the place and circumstances which gave to him unalloyed 
pleasure, not enjoyed under any other circumstances. 

That beautiful home is now lonely, dark, and sad. Gloom and sor- 
row brood in the hearts of those he loved so well and tenderly. And 
while human sympathy in the presence of so great a sorrow feels that 
it can do but little, still it gives to those lowering clouds the silver 
lining. 

And if it be true that the good deeds men do die with them and 
the evil deeds survive, I thank Heaven that his life was such that no 
intentional wrong on his part survived him. To his orphaned chil- 
dren he left a heritage of honor and an unblemished character, in 
coming years the contemplation of which will bring to their hearts 
only joy and gladness. And at his grave, on the beautiful hillside 
near his former home, they may in aftertime repair and there recall 
his example and emulate his virtues. 

Could he have written his own epitaph, he would have them read: 



When to their airy hall my Father's voice 

Shall call my spirit, joyful in their choice, 

When poised upon the gale my form shall ride, 

Or dark in mist descend the mountain's side, 

O may my shade behold no sculptured urns 

To mark the spot where earth to earth returns ; 

No lengthened scroll, no praise-incumbered stone — 

My epitaph shall be my name alone. 

If that with honor fail to crown my clay, 

Oh, may no other fame my deeds repay : 

That, only that, shall single out the spot : 

By that remembered or with that forgot. 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF RUSH CLARK. 27 



;4dDRESS of yVlR. ^ENNETT, OF DAKOTA. 

Mr. Speaker: Well may we stand uncovered and with solemn 
mien in the presence of death. On either hand are only the crum- 
bling walls of mortality; behind, all the world, alike forgetting and 
forgotten ; before us the silent unsounded sea stretching away to the 
echoless shore. Across the starless waste another of our number has 
gone. The ordinary business is suspended while we pay the cus- 
tomary tribute to his memory and connect perchance for the last 
time, his name with the records of this House. Others may speak 
of Rush Clark as they knew him in these Halls; of his patient, 
untiring labor; of his faithful, conscientious discharge of duty, his 
devotion to his convictions of right, and his unswerving loyalty to 
his country and to truth. The tribute I would bring springs from the 
pleasant associations of almost a quarter of a century of intimate 
acquaintance, and is that which a friend pays to the cherished mem- 
ory of a friend. 'Tis melancholy communion we hold by an open 
grave, with the vanished years speaking to us of all their joys and 

sorrows — 

In tones as voiceless as the steps of thought. 

Starting jn our profession very nearly the same time, living for a 
while in the same judicial district, and practicing in the same courts, 
our pathways for years ran close together. Close only in point of 
time and personal and professional contacts. His career lay along 
the heights, on which fell the full eftulgence of erudition's light; mine 
the plodder's path, that only skirts the mountain's base. 

While many who enter the contest for the honors, so tempting, and 
yet so hard to win, in the legal profession, are exhausted, or become 
discouraged when they have reached the steps of the temple of jus- 
tice or are josded within its vestibule, Rush Clark did not rest until 



he had pressed his way to its very altars, and brought to its service 
all the energy and enthusiasm of his noble nature. He knew that 
no half-hearted devotion would find acceptance there or bring the 
coveted reward. He studied and practiced his profession with a 
proper conception of its dignity and exalted character. He was not 
of those who regard it as a means to a selfish and sordid end, an 
occupation or calling by which he might simply amass wealth, or a 
mere stepping-stone to the gratification of political ambition. 

His views of the law were broad and comprehensive. To him 
it was a science, beautiful and symmetrical; a fabric grand and in- 
spiring, not a network of technicalities to ensnare the weak while the 
strong might escape its restraints. His conception of its majesty is 
well expressed in the words of Hooker: "Her seat is in the bosom 
of God, and her voice the harmony of the world; all things in heaven 
and earth do her homage; the very least as feeling her care, and the 
greatest as not exempted from her power." 

As a practitioner he was careful and laborious, seldom entering 
upon the trial of a case without full and thorough preparation. He 
made his client's cause his own, and carried into the contest all the 
zeal and energy of mind and body. Tenacious and persevering, he 
seldom abandoned a case of importance until he had the decision of 
the court of final resort. 

In many respects he was a strong advocate. He had a clear, logi- 
cal, and well-disciplined mind. His style was terse and forcible, and 
his manner pleasing and dispassionate. His very earnestness made 
him impressive, and his well-known honesty in the maintenance and 
expression of his views and opinions gave him weight before courts 
and juries. 

He had fairly won and deservedly held an enviable position at the 
bar of his State, and left a name and record which are among the 
richest of his legacies to his family and friends. 

Mr. Clark was a man of cordial qualities and gracious manners. 




His purity of life and character, his honesty and jirobity none ever 
questioned. Everywhere he went, and in all the relations of life, he 
gathered about him hosts of warm personal friends, and " grappled 
them to his soul with hooks of steel." Within the sacred precincts 
of that home of which he must have been the light, and it the joy of 
his life, we will not intrude. It could not have been other than the 

abode of peace and love— that sweetest of all boons to mortal given 

endeared by affection and hallowed by the joys and sorrows shared 
with each other and borne together under the shelter of its roof. 

From 1853 he had made Iowa City his home. His manhood was 
spent there. There were the scenes of his early struggles and ulti- 
mate triumphs. He allied himself with every movement for the ad- 
vancement of the growth and prosperity of his adopted city. Lib- 
eral and generous to a fault, kind-hearted and obliging, ever ready 
with an encouraging word and a helping hand, he became endeared 
to that community as few men do. The immense throng that waited 
at the depot, far in the night, for the funeral train, and gathered again 
along the streets and in the cemetery, where his mortal remains were 
committed to the dust, while the heavens were hung with black and 
the clouds dropped their tears, attested the hold he had on the hearts 
of that people. 

When the aged man dies, full of years and honors, " goes down 
like a shock of corn fully ripe," we are prepared for the event, and 
there is resignation in our sorrow, for his end is as natural as the fall- 
ing of the leaves when the autumn winds sweep the forest. 

But Mr. Clark's sun went down while it was yet noon. In the 
prime and vigor of manhood, in the midst of life and usefulness, his 
summons came. And as we looked at his vacant seat in this Cham- 
ber, and then into the faces of those sorrowing fatherless children 
and disconsolate widow, as they again sat down among the familiar 
scenes of that desolated home; when we remembered how much of 
love and hope and happiness was wrapped up in his being, and what 



30 ADDRESS Oh' MR. BENNETT ON THE 

the possibilities of his future, and how all in so brief a moment had 
been dashed to the ground, we felt like exclaiming " How unsearch- 
able are His judgments and His ways past finding out." 

On the banks of that beautiful river where for so many years he 
lived, labored, and loved, he sleeps well, while the garland of earthly 
honors that bound his brow in life has but changed to a wreath of 
fadeless beauty in the land beyond the shadows. 

When a good man dies we are apt to think the loss to community 
and the country irreparable, and that his place cannot be filled ; but 
the cold waves of Time close over him, others take up the burden 
that he has laid down, -and the great world moves on. It is a rea- 
sonable hope, born of the experience of the past, that the wise 
Creator, whose foot-prints are seen all along the highways of history, 
will raise up the men and devise the methods necessary for the ac- 
complishment of His infinite designs, that embrace, as we trust, the 
highest good and supremest welfare of mankind. This thought helps 
to reconcile us to the inevitable and presses upon our unwilling atten- 
tion our own insignificance. He of whom we speak to-day filled his 
niche in time, and with an abiding faith in Him whose wisdom is 
over all, whose power protects all, and whose mercy encircles all, 
" fought a good fight, finished his course." Over the dark billows 
that now divide us is only the light of the Star of Bethlehem, bright 
with the promise of immortality. To this we finally all come, when 
every other refuge fails, whether doubting or believing, hoping or 
despairing, and here at length is the anchor cast, for weal or woe, 
■' when our rest together is in the dust." 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF RUSH CLARK. 31 



^DDRESS OF yVlR. pARPENTKR, OF JoWA. 

Mr. Speaker: Less than a year ago, while at my home in North- 
western Iowa, I read in a recently received number of the Congres- 
sional Record the memorial addresses in honor of Beverly B. 
Douglas. Among them was one delivered by Rush Clark. J 
remember in reading his sympathetic words nothing more deeply 
impressed me than the thought that I could see in his utterances an 
illustration of that principle in the human mind which leads one in 
analyzing the character of another to make those elements promi- 
nent which constitute the strong points of his own nature. So now, 
the kindly and noble-souled Rush Clark, whose generosity and un- 
seltishness had been proverbial in Iowa for twenty years, emphasized 
the fact that " the immediate friends of the deceased testified to his 
goodness of heart and openness of hand." One could also read in 
this address that the appreciation of a generous public for honorable 
service and manly effort formed the under-current of his thought, 
and reflected the inspiring purpose of his own laborious life. In 
course of his remarks he recited the evidences of respect and attach- 
ment to the dead Congressman shown by the people of Virginia, 
whose attentions and hospitality to the officers of the House and 
committee, of Congress were everywhere manifest on the route from 
the capital to his former home ; and in this connection he said : 

At the time expected by the friends, we met them at the village of Mr. Douglas's 
residence and attended his remains to the church. The entire village seemed to 
be present to attest their respect for his memory. 

As we read these words between the lines, and in the light of sub- 
sequent history, they seem to be not only a tribute of respect to the 
dead, but a half prophecy of like evidences of appreciation at the 
side of their author's own new-made grave. In less than five months 
from the day they were spoken, the lips that uttered them were closed 



32 ADDRESS OF MR. CARPENTER ON THE 

in death. It seems almost like a coincidence directed by the hand of 
Providence that these words thus fitly describe the scene at the grave 
which so soon opened in the cemetery of that beautiful city of the 
prairies to receive all that was mortal of the noble and generous- 
hearted Rush. 

I had met him occasionally during the last nineteen years, and 
knew him as busy men living one hundred and fifty miles apart some- 
times know each other. But on coming to Washington at the begin- 
ning of the first session of the Forty-si.xth Congress, and finding 
myself occupying a seat nearer him than any other of my Iowa col- 
leagues, as I called upon him day after day for information in respect 
to the application of rules with which I was unfamiliar, I came to 
understand more of his character and to more thoroughly appreciate 
his worth. I also learned why it was that, notwithstanding he was a 
lawyer of strength and acuteness, a clear and persuasive speaker, a 
man of unremitting industry and devotion to his duties — so much so 
that before sending him to Congress his fellow-citizens had chosen 
him three times to represent them in the State Legislature, where his 
services had been so conspicuous that he had been elected speaker 
of the house of representatives for ,one of these terms — he should 
still be known all over the State by the familiar and friendly name of 
Rush. 

Who that hears me to-day has ever known a man possessed of a 
spirit so generous and a patriotism so exalted as to subordinate his 
own interests to his friends, his fellows, and his country, that the dis- 
criminating and great-hearted public did not learn to express its 
fondness and favoritism by calling him some pet and familiar name ? 

But, notwithstanding he was the object of so much love and 
esteem, his friends could not hold him back from the chilling em- 
brace of Death. And now that we have come to lay the last green 
sod upon his grave, may we not hope that wife, children, relatives, 
and friends, who leaned upon him here, and whom he cared for with 



LIKE ANIi CHARACTER OF RUSH CLARK. 33 

such unexampled love and tenderness, may find, as they continue 
life's journey, that though the way may seem longer and lonelier than 
heretofore, it will still be smoothed and cheered by fellow-travelers, 
who in all that constitute a generous manhood and kindly heart are 
neither more nor less than such as was our good friend Rush 
Clark ? 



^DDRESS OF yVlR. JiENDERSON, OF ILLINOIS. 

Mr. Speaker: The relations existing between the late Hon. Rusu 
Clark and myself were of the most friendly and cordial character. 
My acquaintance with him began long before we were associated 
here as members of this honorable body. He represented a district 
ill which I had many acquaintances and friends, and with portions of 
which I had been familiar from early manhood. From that fact we 
were brought into closer and more intimate relations with each other 
when we became members of the Forty-fifth Congress, and what 
before had been a pleasant acquaintance ripened into a sincere and 
confiding friendship. Hence, Mr. Speaker, on this occasion I speak 
not simply as a eulogist, but as a friend. 1 desire not merely to do 
honor to the memory of a deceased member of this body, but to pay 
a tribute of respect to one whom I regarded with all the feelings and 
sentiments of a warm and generous friendship. 

It is not my purpose to speak at length of the private and public 
virtues of Mr. Clark. This has been done, and better done, by his 
colleagues who have preceded me. I will, however, say that in pri- 
vate life Mr. Clark was beloved by all who knew him and shared 
his society and his friendship. In public life he was respected and 
honored by all associated with him who knew his many virtues and 
his manly worth. I never knew a man more conscientious and faith- 
ful than he in the discharge of a public trust. As a member of this 
body, I have no doubt but that his fidelity in the discharge of his 



S K c 



34 ADDRESS OF MR. HENDERSON ON THE 

public duties and the constant, unremitting attention he gave to the 
many wants and interests of his constituents wore his Hfe away. The 
arduous labor he performed here at his desk and at his room during 
the silent watches of the night prepared the way for the successful 
attack of disease, if it did not induce the very disease of which he 
died. 

He worked more, Mr. Speaker, than he had the strength to work, 
and no one who intimately knew him could fail to observe that he 
often seemed to be overworked, overtaxed; yet I can never forget 
his warm friendly greetings, his cheerful demeanor, and how bravely 
and uncomplainingly he bore up under the burdens resting upon him 
as a Representative. 

Mr. Clark was not only a faithful public servant, but he was 
faithful in all the relations of life. As a counselor and advocate he 
was able and faithful, and deservedly occupied a high position at the 
bar of his county and State. As a member of this body, while he 
took no active part in the debates of the House, yet he was in con- 
stant attendance upon its sessions, closely and accurately observed 
its proceedings, and took a deep interest in them. 

I doubt if any man ever brought into the public service as a legis- 
lator a more earnest, sincere desire to serve well and faithfully his 
constituents and his country. As a citizen he took a deep interest 
in all that pertained to the welfare of the community in which he 
lived, as well as of his State and nation ; and he enjoyed in a high 
degree the respect and confidence of his fellow-citizens, neighbors, 
and friends. But, Mr. Speaker, he has obeyed the mandate which 
sooner or later must come to all of us. He has laid down life's 
duties, responsibilities, and cares, and is at rest in the cemetery of 
the beautiful city in which he lived. I confess, Mr. Speaker, when I 
heard, as I did on the day of his death, that Rush Clark was 
dying I was greatly shocked. It was one of those sudden admoni- 
tions which sometimes come upon us, overwhelming us with sorrow 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF RUSH CLARK. 35 

and reminding us of the great uncertainty of human hfe. I had 
met Mr. Clark but the evening before his death as we were walking 
on Pennsylvania avenue. I had a pleasant conversation with him, 
in which we discussed the probabilities of an adjournment of the 
extra session of Congress, and we spoke of our anxiety to get home ; 
and now, in a few brief hours, he was dying, he was going home, 
and there to rest forever. Such is human life. 
Mr. Speaker, some poet has truthfully said: 

Death is here, and death is there, 
Death is busy everywhere ; 
All around, above, beneath 
Is death, and we are death ; 
First our pleasures die, and then 
Our hopes and fears ; and when 
These are dead the debt is due ; 
Dust claims dust, and we die, too. 

Surely those of us who have served here in this Hall for the last 
few years need no poetic admonition that Death has been here. We 
know, as we have seen one after another of our fellow- members 
stricken down, that Death is here; and that no distinctions, no gifts, 
no honors, however great, can save us from his ruthless hand ; when 
the summons comes we must all obey. 

Mr. Speaker, those of us who accompanied the remains of Rush 
Clark to the home he loved so much, and to their final resting- 
place, could not mistake for a moment the deep hold he had upon 
the affections of the people among whom he had lived and worked 
and toiled for so many years. The multitude which in the rain and 
in the darkness of the night met us on the arrival of the tram, and 
thronged the line of our march from the depot to the residence of 
the deceased, demonstrated in a remarkable manner the love and re- 
spect which the people cherished for a noble citizen and a faithful 
Representative, and th^ great sorrow which had been so suddenly 
visited upon them. I was myself deeply affected at the demonstra- 



36 ADDRESS OF MR. HENDERSON. 

tions of sorrow which everywhere met us at his home, and by the 
very general expression of deep and tender sympathy for the grief- 
stricken wife and fatherless children. I sincerely trust and believe 
the memory of our departed friend may long be cherished by the 
people he served so well, and that the God of the widow and the 
fatherless may keep and bless his bereaved wife and children. 

The Speaker. The question is on the adoption of the resolutions. 

The question being taken on the resolutions they were adopted 
unanimously; and, in obedience to the fourth resolution, the House 
adjourned. 



PROCEEDINGS IN THE SENATE. 



April 30, 1879. 

A message from the House of Representatives, by Mr. George 
M. Adams, its Clerk, communicated to the Senate the inteUigence of 
the death of Mr. Rush Clark, late a member of the House from 
the State of Iowa, and transmitted the resolutions of the House 
thereon. 

Mr. Allison. Mr. President, I ask that the message from the 
House be reported. 

The President pro tempore. The action of the House will be 
read. 

The Secretary read as follows: 

In the House of Representatives, 

April 29, 1879. 

Resolved, That the House has heard with sincere regret the an- 
nouncement of the death of Hon. Rush Clark, late a Represen- 
tative from the State of Iowa. 

Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring). 
That a special joint committee of seven members and three Senators 
be appointed to take order for superintending the funeral and to es- 
cort the remains of the deceased to his late residence in Iowa, and 
the necessary expenses attending the execution of this order shall be 
paid out of the contingent fund of the House. 

The Speaker announced the appointment of Mr. Hiram Price 
of Iowa, Mr. John H. Reagan of Texas, Mr. William H. H.a.tch 
of Missouri, Mr. Henry S. Neal of Ohio, Mr. Thomas J. Hender- 
son of Illinois, Mr. Mark H. Dunnell of Minnesota, and Mr. 
Philip Cook of Georgia, the said committee on the part of the 

House. 

37 



38 PROCEEDINGS IN THE SENATE. 

Resolved, That the Clerk communicate the foregoing resolutions 
to the Senate. 

Resolved, That as a mark of respeet to the memory of the de- 
ceased this House do now adjourn. 

Mr. Allison. Mr. President, I offer the following : 

Resolved, That the Senate agree to the resolution of the House of 
Representatives providing for the appointment of a joint committee 
to take order for superintending the funeral and to escort the re- 
mains of Hon. Rush Clark, late a member of the House of Rep- 
resentatives from the State of Iowa, to his late residence, and that 
the committee on the part of the Senate be appointed by the Presi- 
dent /w tempore of the Senate. 

The resolution was agreed to unanimously. 

The President pro tempore. The Chair appoints Mr. Kirk- 
wood, Mr. Platt, and Mr. Hereford the committee on the part of 
the Senate. 

Mr. Edmunds. Mr. President, as a further mark of respect for 
the memory of the deceased, I move that the Senate do now ad- 
journ. 

The motion was agreed to; and (at one o'clock and nine minutes 
p. m.) the Senate adjourned. 



May r, 1879. 
The President pro tempore. The Chair has been requested by 
the Senator from Iowa [Mr. Kirkwood] who was appointed one of 
the Senators to attend the remains of the late Representative Clark 
to his home to announce to Senators that funeral services over the 
remains of Mr. Clark will take place at the National Hotel to-day 
at six and a half o'clock p. m., after which the remains will be re- 
moved to the depot. Senators are invited to attend. 



proceedings in the senate. 39 

February 3, 1880. 
The Vice-President laid before the Senate the following resolu- 
tions from the House of Representatives : 

In the House of Representatives, 

yanuary 31, 1880. 

Resolved, That this House has heard with deep regret of the death 
of Hon. Rush Clark, late a member of this House from the State 
of Iowa. 

Resolved, That as a testimony of respect to his memory the offi- 
cers and members of this body will wear the usual badge of mourn- 
ing for the space of thirty days. 

Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be transmitted by the 
Clerk of this House to the family of the deceased. 

Resolved, That the Clerk be directed to communicate a copy of 
these proceedings to the Senate, and that as a further mark of re- 
spect to the memory of the deceased this House do now adjourn. 

Attest: GEO. M. ADAMS, Clerk. 

Mr. Allison. Mr. President, I oflfer the following resolution : 
Resolved, That the Senate has received with profound sorrow the 
announcement of the death of Hon. Rush Clark, late a member 
of the House of Representatives from the State of Iowa. 

The Vice-President. The question is on the resolution offered 
by the Senator from Iowa. 



40 ADDRESS OF MR. ALLISON ON THE 



^DDRESS OF A/1r. ^LLISON, OF Jq-WA. 

Mr. President: This is the first instance of the death of any mem- 
ber of either House from Iowa during his term of service, since that 
State was admitted to the Union. 

Mr. Clark died in this city after an illness of a single day, on 
the 28th of April last, during the extra session of the present Con- 
gress. His term of service was brief; he having been first elected 
to the Forty-fifth Congress, and re-elected to the Forty-sixth. Be- 
cause of his brief service he was not personally well known in Con- 
gressional circles except to his immediate associates and those with 
whom he served on committees in the House. No man of his age, 
however, was better known in Iowa, which State he had chosen for 
his home when he and the State alike were young. 

Mr. Clark was born in Schellsburgh, Pennsylvania, October i, 
1834. He graduated at Jefferson College in that State in 1853 at the 
age of nineteen, and immediately afterward went to Iowa and became 
a student at law in the office of an elder brother who was in the enjoy- 
ment of a lucrative practice at the bar in Iowa City, then the capital 
of the State. 

He was soon afterward admitted to practice in the courts, and in 
a short time attained a respectable rank among his associates at the 
bar of Iowa City, which was then, as now, composed of men of marked 
ability. At the urgent solicitation of personal friends he for a time 
edited the Republican, which was then the leading Whig newspaper 
in the State, and continued in charge of that paper until and for a 
considerable period after the Whig party became merged into the 
more aggressive and liberal party which was organized in that State 
in 1854 in hostility to the repeal of the Missouri compromise. His 
pen exerted a wide influence in changing the political complexidn of 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF RUSH CLARK. 41 

the State, which until then had been under the control of the Demo- 
cratic party. 

In 1859 Mr. Clark was elected to the State Legislature. In 1861 
he was re-elected, and at the beginning of his second term of service 
was elected speaker of the house, being the youngest man ever called 
to fill that exalted position in our State. 

He carefully studied the rules of parliamentary practice. This, 
together with his agreeable manners, enabled him to fill the ofiice 
with ability and impartiality, and secured for him the respect and 
esteem of his political adversaries as well as of his party friends. 

At the Republican Congressional convention in his district, the suc- 
ceeding fall, his name was presented, and he came within only six 
votes of receiving the nomination, which was then, as it has been 
since, equivalent to an election. 

He continued in the practice of his profession, becoming well 
known in the State as an able and successful lawyer, taking no very 
active part in poHtical affairs until 1875, when a Senatorial election 
was to take place in our State. At that time the friends of my col- 
league had in view his election to the place to be made vacant by 
the voluntary retirement of Hon. George G. Wright. Mr. Clark 
was called upon by the citizens of the county in which he and my 
colleague resided to become a candidate for the lower house of the 
General Assembly. His candidacy was pressed upon the ground 
that the county was doubtful politically with any other candidate, 
but that his personal popularity would render his election certain. 
He hesitated only because of the inconvenience to him on account 
of his professional engagements, but finally yielded his assent and 
was elected by a respectable majority, and served another term in 
the General Assembly. In the spring of 1877, Hon. James Wilson, 
who for four years had served the fifth district in the House with 
industry and ability, publicly announced his determination not to be 
again a candidate for re-election. Public opinion fixed upon Mr. 



6 R c 



42 ADDRESS OF MR. ALLISON ON THE 

Clark as the fittest man to become his successor; he was nominated 
at the Republican convention, and elected by a large majority. 

It was no easy task for a man trained only to hard service before 
the courts to accustom himself readily to the daily work of the House 
and the daily drudgery of department labor. 

Although he possessed an active and vigorous intellect, he had a 
delicate and nervous physical organization — too delicate for the labor 
he undertook; for it is the concurrent testimony of his immediate 
associates and late constituency that he labored constantly to famil- 
iarize himself with the great work of Congress, and at the same time 
to look patiently and vigilantly after the errands of his constituents 
in the executive departments. 

The most of those who hear me know how much of toil, care, and 
anxiety are involved in this brief recital of the daily work of a faith- 
ful member of the House of Representatives; yet few persons who 
are not familiar with such work from personal experience or observa- 
tion know the extent and growth of the necessary demand of a con- 
stituency upon their public servants in Washington ; and fewer still 
know that these requests involve considerable journeys and a vo- 
luminous correspondence. A faithful Representative is attentive to 
these details — and none more so than Mr. Rush Clark during his 
brief Congressional service. The labor was too great for him, and 
when disease seized upon him he soon yielded to its resistless power. 
His service, though brief, was in all respects creditable to him and 
was full of promise for the future. His knowledge of the law and 
of affairs, his practice in the courts, his familiarity with the methods 
of legislation, constituted for him training schools so efficient that 
he needed only the experience which length of service alone can 
give to make him a most useful member of Congress. 

Observation discloses that there must be, added to ability, industry, 
and integrity, continued service to enable members of either House 
to take a conspicuous position and exert a commanding influence in 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF RUSH CLARK. 43 

the settlement of the great questions which every Congress brings 
before us demanding our consideration and action. 

It is not too much to say of our departed friend that had such 
opportunities been given him he would have shown himself equal to 
the service. He was a fair type of that large body of professional 
and business men to be found in every State and in every Congres- 
sional district who need but opportunity and e.xperience in public 
life and length of service in either branch of Congress to impress 
themselves upon the legislation of the country, and the faithful and 
successful administration of its great affairs. 

Although Mr. Clark held but few public offices, public trusts of 
considerable magnitude were confided to him. He was a member 
of the staff of my associate, who was during the most perilous period 
of the late civil war governor of our State. He was for a consider- 
able time a member of the board of regents of our State University, 
and also held other public trusts. 

In all these he discharged the duties assigned him with ability and 
integrity, as he performed the duties of his broader sphere of service 
here with scrupulous honesty and fidelity. 

In saying this of him I do not intend to distinguish him from the 
great body of his associates in the House. Having had some expe- 
rience here in both Houses of Congress, I can truthfully say that, in 
my belief, instances are rarely found of those who allow their con- 
duct to be controlled by private motives of personal gain, aside from 
the general good, or who legislate for their own private benefit rather 
than for the public advantage. And any opinion that here more 
than elsewhere sordid selfishness controls the conduct of public men 
is wholly erroneous and baseless. 

Mr. Clark at his death was about forty-five years old. Coming 
to our State when he was still a youth, he participated in and con- 
tributed to its rapid growth and development. He found there a 
population of less than a quarter of a million, and saw it grow to a 



44 ADDRESS OF MR. HEREFORD ON THE 

million and a half. His own immediate constituency at the time of 
his death numbered more than two-thirds the entire population of the 
State when he became a citizen. Thus early identifying himself with 
its interests and progress, he was well known in the State, especially 
among our lawyers and judges and leading public men, and was 
highly esteemed for his ability, his benevolence, his sense of justice, 
and his high character as a citizen; for his fidelity to friends and 
courtesy to opponents. An ardent RepubHcan, he had the respect 
and regard of his political adversaries. Strong in his own convic- 
tions, he respected the convictions of others. 

His sudden and untimely death shed a gloom over our State; and 
the numerous eulogies pronounced upon him through the press and 
public meetings indicate the strong hold he had upon our people. 
In his death the community in which he lived lost a valuable and 
public-spirited citizen, his district and the State a faithful public serv- 
ant, and the House in which he served one of its ablest and best 
representative men. 



^DDRESS OF Mr. j^EREFORD, OF WesT VIRGINIA. 

Mr. President : A few hours ago I was requested to make some 
remarks on this occasion. I cheerfully accepted the invitation to 
perform the sad task. It is a pleasure, though a sad one. The his- 
tory of the short life of Rush Clark has been given you by another 
more capable than I. On the 28th of April, 1879, all that was mor- 
tal of Rush Clark passed from earth away. Mr. Clark presented 
in his physical, mental, and moral qualities a fine type of that class 
of men who at an early period in life bade adieu to the loved ones 
in their Eastern homes and swelled the thronging, surging mass that 
crossed the Father of Waters to make a new home in the far West. 
He located himself in the beautiful town of Iowa City, which dots 
one of the wide-spreading prairies of the mighty West, where but a 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF RUSH CLARK.. 45 

few years ago the Indian and the buffalo held undisputed sway, but 
now the happy home of thousands of " fair women and brave men." 
Where once was the wigwam of the child of the forest, now we be- 
hold churches erected to the living God, and schools, academies, and 
colleges in which are being educated a class of men and women who 
are to be the future rulers of this the grandest and only true repub- 
lic the world ever saw. Where once was the trail of the buffalo, now 
may be seen thousands of miles of railroads over which the iron 
horse, with sinews of steel, muscles of iron, and a breath of fire 
dashes along over mountain heights and boundless prairies clad in 
nature's green and relieved by flowers of every hue, bearing in his 
train the commerce of a great, contented, happy, and united people. 
Such a country is well adapted to expanding and developing the 
soul, mind, and energies of its citizens. 

In this country, surrounded by such people, was the head and 
heart of Rush Clark, already prepared by his early training in the 
mountain fastnesses of his native State, stored and expanded for the 
great work before him. Too much honor cannot be given to the 
early pioneers of tiie West. At an early period he saw the " star of 
empire" taking its course westward, and eagerly followed in the 
bright pathway lighted up by its beneficent and inviting rays. 

At an early period his fellow-citizens saw in him future usefulness, 
and elevated him to the councils of their giant young State, over 
which he was elected its presiding officer. Nor did they wait long 
until they called him to a higher and more responsible position, and 
sent him to the national councils in the other end of this beautiful 
building. But the icy hand of death was laid upon his big, bounding 
heart, and its warm currents were chilled and ceased to beat forever, 
and his beaming, benignant eye closed on the bright future forever. 
Mr. Clark was an aflectionate son, a fond husband, and devoted 
father. His beautiful, kind, and intelligent wife and his three bright, 
rosy-cheeked children are left without a protector. Oh, no; that is 



46 



ADDRESS OF MR. HEREFORD ON THE 



not correct. His thousands of true, devoted, and admiring friends, 
male and female, will be their protectors and guardians. 

No one could doubt for a moment the high estimation in which 
he was held by his constituency if he had been present that dark 
night when the train arrived at his home and seen the thousands of 
people, irrespective of party or creed, coming to receive the casket 
containing the remains of their brother, and looked out upon the im- 
mense procession marching to the beat of muffled drums with sad and 
sorrowful hearts. 

Whether at the bar discussing abstruse legal propositions with his 
brethren of the legal profession, or as speaker of the house of repre- 
sentatives of his adopted State, or as an honorable, highly respected, 
and laborious Representative in Congress, he always commanded 
the respect — ay, the love and admiration — of all with whom he came 
in contact 

Mr. Clark was a decided partisan, but be it said to his honor he 
had no bitterness of feeling. Would that all public men would emu- 
late his example in this respect ! Always kind, courteous, and respect- 
ful to his political opponents, he won, as he deserved, friends from 
all sorts and classes of people. The public man who upon any occa- 
casion would engender or foster party hate, or seek to array one class 
or interest or one section of his common country against another 
is no patriot, whatever his protestations may be, and deserves the 
scorn and contempt of all good men. Such a man Rush Clark was 
not; hence I honored him when alive, and respect his memory, though 
dead! 

I have laid my wreath upon the bier of my dead brother. Small 
and insignificant though it be, yet it is none the less fragrant if it 
shall be tested by the sincerity of the sentiments of the donor. My 
friend, I bid thee farewell until that great day of assize shall come ; 
that day for which all others were made ; for which earth sprang 
from chaos, man from earth, and God from eternity. 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF RUSH CLARK. 



47 



Address of Mr. Platt, of Ponnecticut. 

Mr. President: It may not be entirely inappropriate forme to 
add a few words to what has already been so well and touchingly 
said by those Senators who have preceded me and who knew and 
respected and loved him whose worth they justly seek to perpetuate 
by these ceremonies. 

I was not acquainted with Rush Clark. I do not know that I 
ever met him. I cannot speak of him therefore from that more in- 
timate knowledge which comes from personal contact and associa- 
tion; but in the performance of my duty as one of the committee 
appointed by this body to attend his remains to their final resting- 
place, I learned much of his true character and of the sterling quali- 
ties of his mind and heart, of which I may speak. The grave has 
at least one feature which somewhat modifies its gloom. There a 
man is truly judged by his fellows. The sharp antagonisms, the un- 
just judgments of life are buried there, before the coffin is lowered, 
and the^abilities, the impress, and the true character of the one who 
is to be its occupant are there justly acknowledged. 

The courtesies of the grave are accorded to all, but men do not 
there deceive themselves or others in the estimate which they place 
upon the life of a fallen comrade. There you may learn his real 
history, his innermost life, his true character. At the home of Rush 
Clark, from the moment we reached the station till the last sad rites 
had been tenderly and lovingly performed, the evidences of a great 
sorrow pervading the entire community were unmistakable. At the 
very borders of the State which he had adopted as his own, we were 
made to feel that his influence had extended beyond the limits of the 
district which he more immediately represented, and that the whole 
State mourned for one of its truest and noblest men. All along the 



48 ADDRESS OF MR. PLATT ON THE 

route to the beautiful city which had been the scene of his more 
active labors, we were met by strong, true men, who grieved as if the 
deceased had been a brother. I shall never forget the hour of our 
arrival at Iowa City. It was night, but the whole population had 
gathered to pay its tribute of respect to the dead, to testify its sym- 
pathy for the bereaved. The saddened faces of the people, seen in 
the light of the torches which were to guide us ; the whispered 
orders for the disposition of his remains; the tears which fell from 
the eyes of sturdy men, all spoke most emphatically of the character 
of the man and of the place he had won for himself in the hearts of 
all. If deep sorrow could have restored him to life he would have 
lived again. It was an hour to be remembered always, and its im- 
pressions were intensified by the obsequies of the next day, when a 
vast concourse gathered to attend with uncovered heads the impres- 
sive funeral ceremonies, and to follow in long procession to the tomb 
all that was left of him who had been their reliance and pride. 
Neither the falling rain nor the sharp thunder could deter those who 
honored him from the performance in minutest detail of the last 
solemn rites. So he was laid away to rest in the beautiful cemetery 
just outside of and overlooking the city he had chosen for his home. 
How appropriately such a resting-place is called " God's acre.'' 
There we buried him, in the early springtime, when the opening bud, 
the sprouting grain, and the springing grass were nature's assurances 
of the life to come. 

1 have said I was unacquainted with the deceased, and yet, from 
mingling with those who knew him best, I think I came to under- 
stand and appreciate his life and character in some degree, as if I 
had lived in the community that so much honored him. His was a 
noble and unselfish career. What words of higher commendation 
can be spoken of any man ? He had ability of no common order, 
but it was used less for his own advancement than for the service of 
others. Ambition never blunted his sympathies, and a well-earned 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF RUSH CLARK. 49 

popularity never caused him to be forgetful of his friends. Duty 
was his watchword, and in its performance was his reward. With all 
his struggles and trials, his life was a happy one, for he consciously 
contributed to the happiness of others. Such men must die, but the 
world is the better in that they have lived. 



^DDRESS OF /Wr. JCiRKWOOD, OF [OWA. 

Mr. President: Other Senators have spoken fully of Rush Clark 
in the relations he bore to the public whom he had served as a lawyer 
and a legislator. It becomes me, by reason of my more intimate per- 
sonal acquaintance with him, to speak of him as he was known to 
those who, like myself, had the pleasure and the advantage of fre- 
quent, close, and friendly intercourse with him. 

He represented in the Forty-fifth Congress and, until his death, in 
the Forty-sixth Congress the Congressional district in which I live. 
I was one of his constituents; he was my fellow-townsman, my 
neighbor, and I am glad to be able to say my friend. He was by 
some two years an older resident of our young State than myself 
When I went to reside in Iowa City in 1855, I found him there, a 
young man and a young lawyer, struggling for and gradually whi- 
ning, by his knowledge of the law, his <;lose attention to his busi- 
ness, his energy, and his perseverance, that high rank in his profes- 
sion to which he afterward attained. When he came to Iowa his 
capital, or as we sometimes express it in our quaint Western way, his 
"outfit" was his head, his heart, and his hands — a clear head, a 
stout heart, and willing hands. 

After closing his collegiate life in Pennsylvania, he judged, as I 
think wisely, that there was a better chance for him to win his way 
in the battle of life in the new, broad, free West, than in the older, 
more crowded, and I trust I may say without offense, less liberal 



7 r c 




older States. He knew well that the journey of life for him was not 
to be an easy, pleasant travel over a broad, smooth highway, but a 
tedious and painful progress over a rough and rugged path, every 
foot of which was to be made by his own labor and perseverance. 
He did not quail at the prospect, but went to work manfully and 
persistently. He met, as such men almost always do meet, many 
obstacles in his way; but he met them boldly, overcame them, and 
left them behind him, monuments of his energy and courage. 

Before his death these qualities had brought him to where his path- 
way was broader and smoother, and the outlook for his future more 
bright and cheering. And then he died; died in the prime of life; 
died of overwork; died of the earnest and exhausting labor he gave 
to the interests of his country and his constituents, which was greater 
than his physical powers, never strong, could endure. 

My colleague has told of the different honorable positions held by 
Mr. Clark by the favor of those among whom he lived, and how he 
performed the duties attached to them. He held at one time a 
position — not by election, but by my appointment — that brought us 
into close and cordial relations. I had the honor to hold, during the 
first three years of our civil war — the war of the rebellion as it is in 
my judgment properly called — the office of governor of the loyal 
State of Iowa, and thereby was charged with the duty of raising and 
organizing the volunteers called for from that State for the preserva- 
tion of the Union. I needed to aid me in that work the services of 
some bright, earnest, active young men. Mr. Clark was one of 
them; my colleague (I trust he will pardon me) was another. 
Largely by their aid and the aid of others associated with them in 
giving form and direction to the patriotism of our young men, the 
quota of Iowa's soldiers was always full ; and I must be allowed to 
say in this presence, where are men who fought on the same side with 
them, and men who fought against them, no better or braver soldiers 
fought under either flag in that unhappy strife. 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF RUSH CLARK. 



5' 



As a citizen Rush Clark was orderly, law-abiding, and public- 
spirited; as a neighbor, kindly, generous, and helpful; as a friend, 
true and trusty; as a husband and father, kind, loving, and devoted. 

The scene on the arrival of his remains at his home showed the 
estimation in which he was held by his neighbors, those who knew 
him best and to whom his sudden death had given a great and pain- 
ful shock. It was late at night when the train carrying his corpse 
reached our quiet town, and yet the depot and the street between that 
and his home were filled by his friends and neighbors who came to 
testify by their presence their respect for him and their sorrow for his 
loss, and who on the next day followed him to our quiet cemetery 
where his mortal remains " rest in peace." 

When we look about us and see death choosing his victims, we 
sometimes wonder why the idler is left, and the active earnest worker 
is called away; why those in the pride and vigor of their manhood 
are taken and those older and perhaps weary of life are permitted to 
remain. We do not know why. We know that God who does all things 
well, so wills it, and bow in submission to His will. We only know 
that he to whose memory we do honor to-day has gone before us to 
learn the mysteries of that other life in which we all believe, as to 
which many fear so much, and as to which all hope so much and 
know so little. 

If it be true, as many believe, that the best service we can render 
here to the Great Father of all is to give strength to the weak and 
help to the helpless of His children, then my friend has done his 
proper work well. 

If it be true, as many believe, that in the other life we shall be 
assigned to do the work for which our mental and moral develop- 
ment here has best fitted us, then my friend will be given there im- 
portant work to do. 

If it be true, as many believe, and it is becoming very pleasant for 
me so to believe, that in the other life we shall know and enjoy the 



ADDRESS OF MR. KIRKWOOD. 



society of those whom we knew and loved here, then my friend who 
has gone before is enjoying pleasant communings in his new home 
and waits with patient longing the coming of those whom he loved 
and left behind. 

I move, Mr. President, the adoption of the resolution offered by 
my colleague. 

The resolution was agreed to unanimously. 

Mr. KiRKWOOD. I move now that, as a further mark of respect to 
the memory of the deceased, the Senate adjourn. 

The motion was agreed to, and the Senate adjourned. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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